Representative to the United States Mission to the OSCE Permanent Council, Ambassador Ian Kelly

Vienna, Austria

2012-09-07

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

The United States recalls its statement of July 26 about violence in the Gorno-Badakshan Autonomous Region of Tajikistan. We note that the situation is calmer, but that tensions remain and a large number of security forces are still deployed to the region. We encourage the Tajik authorities to allow access to Gorno-Badakshan for international organizations and diplomatic missions. Given its mandate for early warning and conflict prevention, the OSCE could play an important role in assisting the Tajik authorities.

In addition, the United States calls on the Tajik authorities to ensure transparent and impartial investigations into the recent killings of a leader of the Gorno-Badakshan branch of the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan, Mr. Sabzali Mamadrizoev and the former field commander of the United Tajik Opposition, Mr. Imumnazar Imomnazarov.

We call for due legal process to be followed in any trials of those detained as a result of recent events, and strongly urge Tajikistan to fulfill its OSCE commitments by conducting transparent investigations of the incidents that have occurred at the border, and guaranteeing the rights of detainees, including access to legal counsel, humane treatment, and fair trial.

We reiterate our call for Tajikistan to abide by its OSCE commitments to respect human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the protection of freedom of expression and the free flow of information at all times. A number of websites in Tajikistan remain blocked. We recall the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media’s statement of July 27 when she noted that “blocking is a restriction on free media and, most importantly, deprives citizens of their right to know, to receive and impart information about developments in their own country.” The United States calls on the Tajik authorities to lift these restrictions.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

HumanRights.gov

Источник: http://www.humanrights.gov/2012/09/07/statement-by-ambassador-kelly-on-the-situation-in-tajikistan/?

Government forces have recently clashed with armed groups in Tajikistan’s remote Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province, a mountainous region along the Afghan border that has existed largely outside Dushanbe’s control for decades. RFE/RL’s Robert Coalson takes a quick look at Badakhshan and the wider impact of unrest there.

Relatively few people have heard of Tajikistan’s Badakhshan region. Why is it important?

Badakhshan is an isolated, mountainous region of southeastern Tajikistan that shares a long and virtually open border with Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, and China. The region has considerable mineral wealth and is also a corridor for illegal trafficking in cigarettes, alcohol, and narcotics — particularly Afghan heroin.

It has a population of about 250,000, most of whom belong to the Pamiri ethnic group and are Shi’ite Muslims of the Ismaili sect. Tajikistan is a Sunni-majority country.

Badakhshan lies several hundred kilometers from the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, and is isolated by rugged mountain terrain. It has been largely de facto autonomous since Tajikistan became independent in 1991. The borders in the area were patrolled by Russian troops until the Tajik government asked them to leave in 2005.

Tajikistan is considered a weak state that is potentially vulnerable to destabilizing influences that could come across the border from Afghanistan as the NATO-led international coalition there draws down its combat forces in 2014. This is a matter of considerable concern to both Moscow and Beijing.

The larger neighborhood powers have long had serious concerns about security in the region. Omar Ashour, who teaches Middle East studies at the University of Exeter, notes that Russia intervened heavily to end the Tajik Civil War in 1997 because of concerns that the fragile country could be undermined by the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan.

He says the government remains weak, unreformed, and lacks popular support. «You have a government that is not giving any signs of reform or transparency or turning away from corruption. It runs the country almost like an organized-crime syndicate,» Ashour said.

The Tajik government says it has been fighting «militants» in Badakhshan. Who are these militants and what is motivating them — is it religious, ethnic, economic?

Although the Pamiri who populate Badakhshan are ethnically and religiously different from northern Tajiks, the main drivers of the current conflict are clashing economic and power interests that are the unresolved legacy of the Tajik Civil War. Although fighting in that conflict ended in 1997, the central government has been continuing to settle things with former opposition figures, including many that were brought into power structures following the end of the fighting.

Paul Quinn Judge, acting Asia program director of the International Crisis Group, sees the current violence as a legacy of Tajikistan’s civil war.

«The pattern was after the civil war, in many places, to give local guerrilla commanders — commanders of the United Tajik Opposition, that is — positions in their home which would allow them to wield substantial political, administrative, and economic clout,» Quinn Judge said. «The current targets of the government’s operation seems to fall very much within that mold.»

In Badakhshan, the government is targeting a former opposition commander named Talib Ayombekov, who was given a post in the Interior Ministry and later with the border guards. The fighting was sparked by the July 21 killing of Abdullo Nazarov, who was also an opposition commander during the civil war, but who later was made chairman of the Directorate of Tajikistan’s State Committee for National Security (KGB) in Badakhshan.

Ashour notes that both men are from the country’s Sunni majority and have relatively little support among the local population.

How is NATO’s plan to withdraw troops from Afghanistan a factor in Badakhshan?

Although the Badakhshan violence is a purely internal matter, it is not isolated from the events in Afghanistan. Quinn Judge argues that the developing withdrawal from Afghanistan is already increasing tensions in the area.

«The beginning of the drawdown is already making people nervous. Those living around Afghanistan, those with a stake in Afghanistan,» Quinn Judge said. «And what is happening in Badakhshan right now, which could have long-lasting repercussions, is bound to make players like China and the U.S. extremely nervous in the long run.»

The University of Exeter’s Ashour also argues that the emerging security vacuum is fraught with danger for Tajikistan.

«I think what the NATO departure will do is just make all the major players in Tajikistan think that they can expand their influence without having some big brother in the neighborhood intervene to empower one side or the other,» Ashour said.

Ashour agrees that the recent events in Badakhshan could have dangerous, long-lasting repercussions unless the international community pays serious attention.

«Tajikistan is really on the brink at the moment and I think without some kind of international pressure to start some serious reforms in the security sector, in the military sector, and the political system, I think this country may see another cycle of heavy violence,» Ashour said.

WATCH: RFE/RL’s Tajik Service Director Sojida Djakhfarova explains the strategic importance of Gorno-Badakhshan

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Источник: http://www.rferl.org/content/explainer-violence-in-tajikistan-badakhshan-province-a-legacy-of-the-ci

On June 27, media workers across Uzbekistan (presumably) celebrated a day named in their honor. The 19th iteration of Mass Media Workers’ Day was noted in a speech by Uzbek President Islam Karimov, where he cautioned the nation’s journalists not to “succumb to euphoria and get overexcited” about Uzbekistan’s many achievements.

Karimov was not specific about exactly which achievements the media should not get excited about, but he knew that they knew what he meant. “I am confident that you will agree that the whole world acknowledges our tremendous achievements and successes,” Karimov said, reminding the nation’s media that it needed “to reflect reality objectively.”

According to rights groups, however, objective information is harder to find in Uzbekistan than almost any other country in the world. The country ranks just ahead of North Korea in Freedom House’s 2012 Freedom of the Press report, is one of the 10 most censored countries in the world, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, and was named one of Reporters Without Borders’ “enemies of the Internet.”

A dictatorship since independence in 1991, Uzbekistan became especially hostile to independent media after the 2005 massacre in Andijon. Following the events, the government cracked down heavily on civil society and expelled all foreign journalists. RFE/RL’s Uzbek Service, Radio Ozodlik, was also barred from operating inside the country. Today, the state maintains strict controls over all print and broadcast media, and heavily filters the Internet. That is, unless you ask the authorities.

On Mass Media Workers’ Day in 2011, Karimov rejected claims that his government censored the web. «We absolutely do not accept the establishment of any walls, [or] limitations in the information world leading to isolation,» he said. A press release issued by the Uzbek government for the 2012 celebration praised the diversification of Uzbek media. It reads: «Before independence, all the media structures in the country…were the bodies of state power and governance. Today, more than 60 percent of the mass communication media registered in our country are considered private.”

Interestingly, as the Uzbek government unironically celebrated its media workers, CNN aired a report on the country where «echoes of the ancient Silk Road are everywhere.» The seven-minute piece mentions Karimov’s dictatorial tendencies only in passing (in the first minute), saying the country «stands with one foot in the past, and one foot in the modern world,» which is a «sometimes uneasy transition for a former Soviet republic.»

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Источник: http://www.rferl.org/content/silly-dictators-uzbekistan-media-workers-day/24629076.html

DUSHANBE – Tajikistan’s parliament has approved new amendments to the country’s election laws, making it mandatory for lawmakers to be able to speak Tajik fluently.

The new changes stipulate that without fluency in Tajik no one can stand as a candidate in local or national elections.

It remains unclear whether nominees will be required to pass language tests to qualify for elections.

Tajik media and the State Language Committee have repeatedly criticized what they call lawmakers and officials’ inability to speak «pure» Tajik as well as their tendency to even deliver even official speeches in their local dialects instead.

Since 2009, proficiency in Tajik has become mandatory for all state employees.

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Источник: http://www.rferl.org/content/tajik-language-proficiency-mandatory-for-lawmakers/24613439.html

DUSHANBE — Internet access to Tajikistan’s leading independent news agency Asia Plus remains cut off for a second day.

In an interview with RFE/RL’s Tajik Service, Tajik Communications Ministry official Beg Zuhurov claimed «maintenance reasons» were behind the loss of access, which began Tuesday.

Asia Plus, however, accuses authorities of blocking access because of some readers’ comments, which were published on the website and seen by officials as being critical of authorities.

Asia Plus said negotiations are under way with officials to restore access, and the agency has pledged to publish its daily news bulletin on its Facebook page.

Earlier this year, Tajik officials blocked access to Facebook and several independent news agencies, citing «technical reasons.»

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Источник: http://www.rferl.org/content/tajik-news-agency-cut/24612846.html

As Britain’s political leaders testify to an ethics panel this week about their relationship with the media, one question dominates the proceedings.

That is, are Britain’s politicians too close to the media — or too afraid of it — for the country’s good?

Among those who have already appeared before the ethics panel led by Judge Brian Leveson since June 11 are former Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown, current Labour leader Ed Miliband, and former Conservative Prime Minister John Major.

All of them, plus Prime Minister David Cameron, due to appear on June 13, are testifying in Britain’s yearlong enquiry into illegal practices by journalists, chiefly phone hacking.

Although the tabloid where the scandal began, Rupert Murdoch’s «News of the World,» closed in July 2011, the scandal keeps spreading.

It has already led to the arrest or resignation of dozens of journalists, political operatives, and officials.

Now, questions about the relationship of the country’s top political figures to the press – and particularly Murdoch – are creating a crisis for Britain’s political parties as well.

«We are certainly learning that the political establishment became, certainly over the last couple of decades, very close indeed to elements of the press,» says Martin Moore, director of Media Standards Trust, an independent organization concerned with news standards.

‘Fear And Favor’

According to Moore, this has been particularly true of Murdoch’s News Corporation and News International, since they dominated circulation, with almost 40 percent of total circulation among the U.K. press, but also applies to some other media organizations.

He says the close relationship is one of both «fear» and «favor» and each endangers Britain’s body politic.

Suggestions of the level of fear — and anger — the press can inspire in politicians came as Brown appeared on June 11. Brown, prime minister from 2007 to 2010, fiercely attacked Murdoch, denying the press baron’s claim that Brown phoned him to say the Labour Party «would make war on his company» after Murdoch’s «The Sun» switched its support to the Conservative Party in 2010.

But it is the subject of favors that interests the ethics inquiry more.

This week’s hearings have repeatedly looked at whether Britain’s current ruling Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition has been too cozy with Murdoch’s empire.

That includes Cameron’s hiring of a former editor of the «News of the World,» Andy Coulson, as a top media adviser after he left the paper in 2007 amid an earlier phone-hacking scandal.

Cameron says he was right to give Coulson a «second chance,» but the ex-aide’s resignation early last year and his subsequent arrest by London police investigating the recent phone-hacking scandal have put Cameron on the defensive.

Similarly, the government’s culture office is at the center of questions about whether it tried to smooth the way for Murdoch to expand his empire last year by taking over BSkyB, Britain’s largest pay-TV provider.

Culture Minister Jeremy Hunt has been on the defensive since one of his aides, Adam Smith, resigned when it became known he was in close contact about Murdoch’s takeover bid with one of the media mogul’s lobbyists after the «News of the World» crisis exploded last summer.

Search For Remedies

The question before the ethics inquiry is not to decide if any of Britain’s politicians have done wrong. That is beyond the scope of the proceedings.

But the inquiry has already shed light on how close the relationship between Britain’s press and its politicians has become — and many hope it will suggest ways to remedy the problems.

«As soon as you scrape the surface, you realize that there is an enormous amount of really intimate relationships between those two elites — between the political elite and the [tabloid] media elite,» says Natalie Fenton, professor of media and communications at Goldsmiths College of the University of London «And that has all sorts of implications for the development of policy, for the passage of legislation, for political agendas, all the ways in which politicians are thinking about how to develop policy, how it might appear in the media, what they can do to influence that.»

The ethics inquiry will produce a report to the government in October which is expected to include both an assessment of the extent of journalists’ illegal activities and recommendations for reforming the current system of press regulation.

Among the issues the report addresses could well be whether the media should be left to regulate itself through the existing Press Complaints Commission or whether an independent board is needed.

Similarly, the report may address whether an independent body, rather than politicians, should make decisions related to the press in order to avoid the risk of conflicts of interest.

Charles Recknagel

Источник: http://www.rferl.org/content/leveson-inquiry-cozy-relationship-press-politicians-britain/24613136.ht

WASHINGTON — Journalists from Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iraq, Pakistan, and Russia are among 70 individuals who have been memorialized at a U.S. journalism museum for giving their lives to their profession in 2011.

Chris Wells, former senior vice president of Freedom Forum, a U.S.-based free press advocacy group, presided over the ceremony on May 14 at the Newseum in Washington, where the names are now inscribed on a memorial wall.

According to Wells, the diverse group of journalists had been «brought together in a fellowship [that] none of them would have chosen.»

«They spoke different languages; they worked in different spheres of news gathering,» she said. «Some of them were known to millions on the nightly news; some of them worked in anonymity. Some of them knew of impending danger, but many of them were surprised.

«The common thread that united them all was their commitment to journalism and the fact that they left us all too soon.»

According to the Newseum, seven journalists were killed in Iraq last year either while reporting or due to their work. Press watchdog groups say the country continues to rank as the most dangerous for journalists.

Violent Deaths

Among the fallen Iraqi journalists was Hilal Al-Ahmadi, 50, who was known for his reporting on financial and administrative corruption. He was killed by gunfire as he left his Mosul home in February 2011.

Sabah Al-Bazi, a correspondent for Al-Arabiyah television, was covering a provincial government building in Tikrit last year when gunmen seized control of the building and detonated bombs, explosive vests, and grenades. He was 30.

Seven Pakistani journalists killed last year — Nasrullah Khan Afridi, Wali Khan Babar, Shafiullah Khan, Asfandyar Abid Naveed, Faisal Qureshi, Javed Naseer Rind, and Syed Saleem Shahzad — were also recognized by the U.S. museum.

Shahzad, 40, had written about alleged links between the Pakistani Navy and Al-Qaeda before he was found dead southeast of Islamabad in May. Police said his body showed signs of torture.

While working as the Pakistan bureau chief for the Hong Kong-based «Asia Times Online,» Shahzad had gone missing just two days after he wrote an article asserting that Al-Qaeda had carried out an attack on a naval air base in Karachi to avenge the arrest of navy officers suspected of links with the terrorist organization.

RFE/RL’s Radio Mashaal reported that Shahzad had allegedly complained of threats by Pakistan’s powerful intelligence services before he was killed.

Shahzad’s murder sparked outrage around the world. Washington’s top military commander at the time, U.S. Admiral Michael Mullen, said the killing was «sanctioned» by the Pakistani government, a comment that strained U.S.-Pakistani ties.

RFE/RL Reporter Among The Dead

Also among the journalists remembered in Washington was Rafiq Tagi, a prominent writer and freelance reporter for RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani Service.

The 61-year-old died in hospital days after being stabbed by an unknown assailant in Baku in November.

A critic of political Islam in Azerbaijan and the theocratic regime in Iran, Tagi said before he died from his wounds that he thought the attack was related to an article he had written about human rights in the Islamic republic.

Khadzhimurad Kamalov, a prominent journalist in Russia’s North Caucasian republic of Daghestan, was also included on the memorial list.

The 46-year-old was editor and publisher of the «Chernovik» weekly, which had reported extensively on police abuses in the fight against an Islamist insurgency originating in neighboring Chechnya, which has since spread across the region.

He was killed in December outside the newspaper’s office when a masked assailant fired at him.

With this year’s additions, there are now 2,156 journalists honored on the Washington memorial, the first death dating from 1837.

Written by Richard Solash in Washington with RFE/RL reports

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Источник: http://www.rferl.org/content/us_journalism_museum_honors_reporters_killed_in_action/24580755.html

A ritual press conference at the UN produced some unexpected hilarity as journalists grilling the Azerbaijani ambassador on press censorship found out he didn’t know that it was World Press Freedom Day.

Ambassador and current Security Council President Agshin Mehdiyev quickly covered up the gaffe, claiming that Azerbaijan doesn’t need to mark World Press Day on May 3, due to its unrestricted media coverage.

A journalist at the briefing, where Mehdiyev was laying out the Security Council agenda for the month, asked if Azerbaijan was celebrating World Press Freedom Day.

After a pause, Deputy Permanent Representative Tofig Musayev jumped in: «We don’t have any public holiday or any specific date celebrating it, but we know that, if there is a, if I’m not mistaken, there is an international day of freedom of expression….»

Several journalists said in unison, «It’s today.»

Musayev faltered, then said, «Oh. It’s today, by the way. Sorry.»

Mehdiyev jumped in: «Congratulations! As we have a free press we don’t need to specify a day,» he said, before having a good belly laugh.

On May 2, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) named Azerbaijan as a «runner-up» to their list of the 10 most heavily censored countries in the world.

The CPJ report states that Azerbaijan earned this status because «there are no foreign or independent broadcasters on the airwaves, and the few journalists who work on independent newspapers or websites are subject to intimidation tactics, including imprisonment on fabricated charges.»

Mehdiyev told journalists he did not deny that some journalists were imprisoned, but claimed their reporting was not the crime.

«Let us not mix the freedom of expression with freedom of responsibility,» he said. «They’re different things. I believe that we don’t have people imprisoned for their profession or their political views.»

Mehdiyev added: «In prison, you know, there’s hundreds of people. You can find anyone; engineer, journalist, [or] mechanic.»

He also offered to give journalists links to online opposition and independent news sites in the country that are not subject to censorship. Local radio stations in Azerbaijan, however, are prohibited from rebroadcasting RFE/RL’s reporting.

On April 17, Azerbaijani journalist Eynulla Fatullayev won the prestigious UNESCO World Press Freedom Prize. Press-freedom advocate Fatullayev was jailed in 2007 on charges of libel and terrorism, and later drug-related offenses. He was released last year.

Media rights groups condemned his arrest and accused the authorities of targeting the journalist, who was the editor of two newspapers critical of the government.

— Courtney Brooks

Courtney Brooks, RFE/RL

Источник: http://www.rferl.org/content/azerbaijan_has_free_media_who_needs_a_special_day/24569251.html

A leading journalism watchdog group has listed authorities in Uzbekistan, Belarus, and Iran as among the world’s leading media censors.

In a new report released on the eve of World Press Freedom Day, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said all three countries are guilty of seeking to cut off access to information by muzzling journalists and blocking websites.

Robert Mahoney, CPJ’s deputy director, said authorities in Iran, unnerved by several years of rising public unrest, have imposed one of the world’s harshest Internet censorship regimes and jailed dozens of journalists.

«Iran uses imprisonment of journalists to quash critical news coverage,» Mahoney said. «Reformist publications are often banned and their staff sent to prison. Satellite broadcasts and millions of websites are blocked. Sophisticated techniques are used to detect interference with anticensorship software.»

Iran was not among the worst media censors when the CPJ last published its list in 2006 but has since risen to become the world’s fourth-worst censor, behind only Eritrea, North Korea, and Syria.

In Uzbekistan, where the regime of longtime leader Islam Karimov has maintained a stranglehold on the press, the CPJ says all independent media outlets have been effectively eliminated.

Mahoney also notes that five reporters are currently serving prolonged prison terms in the country, which ranks sixth on the CPJ list.

These include Muhammad Bekjannov and Yusuf Ruzimuradov of the «Erk» opposition newspaper, who were imprisoned in 1999 and have now been jailed longer than any other reporters worldwide.

«No independent media outlets are based in Uzbekistan,» Mahoney says. «Access to some outside websites and even key words are blocked. Five reporters are serving extended prison terms. Foreign journalists are excluded.»

Delivering The Death Blow

CPJ’s censorship list ranks countries according to website access, journalists’ freedom of movement, and the presence of privately owned media.

In Belarus — 10th place on the CPJ list — the controversial 2010 reelection of authoritarian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka was seen as delivering the death blow to what remained of the country’s free press.

Mahoney says even before the elections and the massive public protests that followed, Lukashenka’s regime had routinely subjected journalists to criminal prosecution and failed to investigate the suspicious deaths of at least three journalists.

These include Aleh Byabenin, the founder of the outspoken Charter 97 website, who was found hanged at his family’s dacha in 2010.

«The government of Belarus has raided newsrooms, confiscated equipment, imprisoned journalists, and banned reporters from traveling,» Mahoney says. «The remnants of its independent press operate underground. Independent websites are blocked and access to the Internet requires identification.»

Other countries on the CPJ’s top 10 censorship list include Equatorial Guinea, Myanmar, Saudi Arabia, and Cuba. Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, and China were listed among the runners-up.

The CPJ report comes one day after a second watchdog group, Freedom House, gave a grim assessment of the state of the media worldwide, saying the percentage of people with access to a free press had fallen to its lowest level in nearly 20 years.

In a separate statement, the Iraq-based Journalism Freedoms Observatory said pressure on Iraqi journalists was on the rise, with a marked increase in the number of arbitrary arrests and violence targeting reporters.

With reporting by AP, AFP, and dpa

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Источник: http://www.rferl.org/content/uzbekistan_iran_belarus_media_censors/24567209.html

By Richard Solash